laelaps | April 29, 2008Today I've got a human osteology exam, so while I'm trying to make sure I know all my processes, foramina, and sutures things are going to be a bit light here. Still, I've got a few items of interest to unload here before trying to cram more of White's Human Osteology into my brain;
The next edition of the Boneyard is coming up this Saturday and will appear at Familiarity Breeds Content. Get your submissions in to me or Nick soon! Two weeks after that the carnival will be back here with a special edition where participants will have a chance to win some paleontology books from my own…
laelaps | April 29, 2008
A group of Patagonian maras (Dolichotis patagonum), photographed last year at the Cape May Zoo.
laelaps | April 28, 2008As I've said elsewhere, I think that the idea that creationists are master communicators is a myth; they are successful because they are tapping into a religious majority that is feeling antagonized and marginalized by secular culture. Even though most of the population of this country would identify themselves as Christians, some members of the faithful feel like they are continuously under attack by scientists, liberals, homosexuals, etc., their desire to "reclaim the country for Christ" being hindered by a minority of secular elitists.
Indeed, the film Expelled is little more than an…
laelaps | April 28, 2008
A spectacled bear (Tremarctos ornatus), photographed last year at the National Zoo in Washington D.C.
laelaps | April 27, 2008If ever there was a documentary that made me want to be a paleontologist when I grew up, it was the Christopher Reeve-hosted Dinosaur! The stop-motion animation by Phil Tippet still looks good, but even though things have changed a bit since the show came out, it's still fun to watch and provides a good personal follow-up to Friday's open thread. Enjoy!
laelaps | April 27, 2008After the success of The Lost World: Jurassic Park, the minds behind the franchise were in a bit of a fix. Tyrannosaurus and "Velociraptor"* had the run of the fictional islands for the past two movies; something new was needed to up the ante. The decision was made to make Spinosaurus the new villain in Jurassic Park III, the strange theropod being said to possess an 8-foot-long skull and stretch 60 feet from the tip of its crocodile-like snout to the end of its tail by the creative team. As if this weren't enough, the writers of the film had Spinosaurus kick the tar of of Tyrannosaurus,…
laelaps | April 26, 2008Today I spent the majority of my time at "Ag Day," an annual campus-wide festival at Cook Campus. I'm generally not very interested in most of the activities and events, but I did walk away with a few more used books;
Through the Eyes of the Gods
The God Delusion
Did Man Get Here by Evolution or Creation?
Papers on Animal Population Genetics
The Nature Reader
Life, Laughter, & the Pursuit of Snow Leopards
The Boilerplate Rhino
And now, since I can't think of very much to write, here's a little Ben Folds;
laelaps | April 26, 2008
A female Western gorilla (Gorilla gorilla) photographed last year at the Bronx Zoo.
laelaps | April 25, 2008I might have failed to mention this, but last Tuesday Mishu was adopted. Emma and Elise are still here, and Beatrice has gone back to the adoption center (although I'm sure we'll be seeing her again), but this afternoon Tracey and I got another call that there was a 4 week old kitten that needed a temporary home. I named him Huxley, and although he'll be with us for at least another 4 weeks, I'm sure he'll have no problem getting adopted.
laelaps | April 25, 2008It's Friday night, which may mean that you're headed out for dinner, to hit the bars with from friends, or otherwise celebrate the beginning of the weekend. While you're out, though, some of your appliances are still going to be drawing power even when you think you've turned them off. The fact that many of us own "vampire appliances" like TVs, microwaves, and air conditions is well known, but what can you do about it? Wait around for appliance companies to make their products better at saving energy?
I don't know about you, but even if appliance companies started making energy-saving…
laelaps | April 25, 2008
The Apatosaurus mount at the AMNH.
Every person who loves paleontology has their own story about how they became fascinated with strange creatures and ancient world. For me it was solidified by a visit to the American Museum of Natural History in New York when I was only knee-high to a Ceratosaurus, but everyone has their own story to tell. What's more, there's more to suffering PNS (Paleo-Nerd Syndrome) aren't just impressed with ancient life but utterly enthralled by it; there are always more questions and amazing discoveries to think about. I always ask professional paleontologists…
laelaps | April 25, 2008Yesterday a short notice was printed in the journal Science describing where Tyrannosaurus fell in relation to birds on the basis of molecular evidence (i.e. proteins recovered from a Tyrannosaurus femur). Surprise, surprise, the study found that Tyrannosaurus is more closely related to birds than the American alligator or the green anole lizard. Not everything came out perfectly, however. The phylogenetic tree created by the molecular data but Tyrannosaurus in the same group as the birds, meaning that (in the words of the authors) it "leaves Dinosauria unresolved."
An even more obvious error…
laelaps | April 25, 2008I was able to get a few more pages out yesterday, although (say it with me now) not as many as I would have liked. I'm continuing to hammer away at the human evolution chapter as I feel that it's the most important, although if I'm not careful it could turn into a book by itself. I may hit a wall at some point, however, as I'm far more interested in early human evolution (i.e. australopithecines) than in recent prehistoric humans, and I don't want that bias to hinder the relevance of the chapter. (New sections are in bold).
Introduction
Huxley's rejoinder to Wilberforce at Oxford - Darrow…
laelaps | April 25, 2008
A pair of red pandas (Ailurus fulgens) photographed last year at the National Zoo in Washington D.C.
laelaps | April 24, 2008
In the first two installments of this series I had the chance to interview two of the most famous paleontologists in the field today, but there are many, many other skilled scientists that you may never have heard of. Dr. Jerry Harris, Director of Paleontology at Dixie State College, is an outstanding scientist (and friend) who has studied a variety of fossil vertebrates from Mesozoic bird tracks to enormous sauropods. Even though I botched some of the questions, Dr. Harris took the time to come up with some excellent responses about his work.
[Brian Switek] What fascinates you about…
laelaps | April 24, 2008During the past week many bloggers on ScienceBlogs and elsewhere have been talking about Expelled and whether (based upon the opening weekend reaction) it seems like it's going to be a success or a failure. I'm not going to rehash what I've already said on that subject, but the discussion has once again erupted into a mini-battle over framing. Perhaps "discussion" is too kind a term for what's going on at this point; feud would probably be more apt.
For those who aren't regular readers, I've had a difficult time getting my head around what framing is, how it is distinct from what good…
laelaps | April 23, 2008I am proud to announce that tomorrow I will be posting an interview with paleontologist Jerry Harris as the third installment of my Paleontological Profiles series. It's a good one, so be sure not to miss it!
laelaps | April 23, 2008I have to admit I felt a bit foolish this evening. I went to see a lecture by Brian Richmond about hominid bipedalism, although the name didn't register with me. So I'm sitting there in front, watching him talk about Orrorin and how there haven't been any good studies about it, all the while thinking "How could he have missed that Science paper about the femur of Orrorin being most morphologically similar to those of australopithecines?" My own unfamiliarity with "who's who" in anthropology made me feel a bit sheepish when I realized that I was looking at the guy who did that study, d'oh!
I…